Sunshine greets T In The Park 2014 festival-goers for a final farewell to Balado

Thousands of festival-goers have been descending on Balado airfield in Kinross-shire, Scotland for the 21st edition of T In The Park.

Gates to the campsites opened at 3pm yesterday for those with Thursday camping tickets and come sunset the campsites were busy with newly-pitched tents and fresh-faced revellers.

Festival-fever had officially arrived at T by the time The Rifles kicked off proceedings in the King Tut’s Tent with their infectious indie rock anthems and cans of Tennent’s lager in hand.

85,000 festival-goers are expected on site by the time Biffy Clyro take to the main stage this evening, marking their 10th appearance at T In The Park and the first ever headline show at the festival for the Scottish trio.

The Scottish theme runs deep through the programme this year, with Paolo Nutini, Twin Atlantic, Chvrches, Nina Nesbitt, Franz Ferdinand and Jackmaster all due to perform, alongside electro-dance wizard Calvin Harris, who headlines the Saturday night of the festival.

The advice is take wellies as rain is expected at T In The Park tomorrow, July 12 (Picture: Press Association)

This year the festival has joined Police Scotland to reiterate their zero tolerance message on legal highs. Festival Director Geoff Ellis told BBC Newsbeat ahead of the festival: ‘You can’t keep your guard down, you’ve got to be proactive and try to keep everybody safe and that’s what we do.’

Sniffer dogs and amnesty bins will be used to target the proliferation of legal highs at Scotland’s biggest music festival as part of a national crackdown on new psychoactive substances (NPS). It follows a number of high-profile deaths, outside of music festivals, linked to substances which are typically sold labelled as plant food or bath salts.

Five people were arrested and ejected from the T in the Park last year for possessing or using pyrotechnic flares, and earlier this week a spokesperson for T In The Park issued a statement to NME on flares, reminding festival-goers of their official policy.

‘Flares are extremely dangerous and won’t be tolerated at T In The Park’ they said.

‘Do not bring them, do not use them or you will be arrested. Every music fan entering the festival is subject to a bag search and anyone attempting to bring flares into the campsite or the arena will have them confiscated and refused entry.’

Festival Director Geoff Ellis was there to open the campsite gates yesterday afternoon. He commented: ‘The moment we open the campsite gates and welcome the first campers to the festival is my favourite moment of the weekend every year, and it was even more poignant this year as it’s the last time we’ll welcome Thursday campers to Balado.

‘There was a fantastic atmosphere today and an incredible buzz amongst the fans, who are as excited as we are about the weekend ahead.

‘We hope everyone has a great time, and we can’t wait to celebrate one final year of T in the Park at Balado with the greatest audience in the world.’

Biffy Clyro will hope to be The Captains at T In The Park tonight (Picture: Getty Images)

T In The Park continues today with performances from Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Pixies, Manic Street Preachers and headliners Biffy Clyro. For more information visit the official website.

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